Thich Nu Tinh Quang
The next stage
of Eightfold Path is called Right Livelihood (samyag-ājīva / sammā-ājīva). It
is a vocation to feed you and your family and their families on the principles
of the Buddha, and earning benefits in the way of no harm to other beings. In
Buddhism, Right Livelihood includes self-interest and for others; in addition
to support yourself, the compassion also must be nourished; lack of compassion,
your livelihood becomes wrong livelihood which causing bad karma you could not
be unamenable.
Sangharakshita
discusses it in a relation to the concept of an ideal society – which, in his
opinion, is one of the main purposes of Buddhism. In this connection,
Sangharakshita firstly says that we all, even the greatest of us, dream of a
perfect world, which is inhabited by a perfect society, and this utopia
dreaming is just a way to rise above our routine existence. Such dreams may be
a vision of New Jerusalem in Bible, Republic of Plato, Campanella’s City of the
Sun, Utopia of Thomas More, etc, and Buddhism also suggests us a concept of a
pure land – Sukhāvatī, the ‘Western paradise’, in which there is no suffering,
no pain, no diseases, no conflicts, even misunderstandings, and so on: there is
even no bad weather in Sukhāvatī. However, Sangharakshita stresses out that Buddhism
is not about mere dreams; on the contrary, it is very practical – because it
aims at creating a new perfect society here, on our planet, and in our
countries and homes. So Sangharakshita argues that the fifth stage of Eightfold
Path represents a transformation of our society into new one.[1]
Further, in his writing, Sangharashita assumes
that all previous stages concern the changes of individual experience,
experiences of separated beings while this stage already concerns a society, as
a collective experience. Because of
that, he wonders why among all spheres of collective existence (according to
Sangharashita, there are three: strictly social sphere, political sphere, and
economical sphere), on the fifth stage of his noble guidance, the Buddha limited
himself with only economical aspect, and why he only taught about moneymaking?
Sangharashita makes an attempt to answer by himself: it is plainly because of a
social situation in India: most people were not into politics, and the caste
system mostly determined all the social interrelations, so the only thing that
concerned all the Indians was what they did for living-their labor. That is why
obviously the Buddha considered the economical aspect of collective existence
to be the most essential and made it a part of the Eightfold Path.[2]
Finally, Sangharashita proceeds to analyze the
concept of Perfect Livelihood. It is obvious from Buddhist worldview that when
we dedicate a lot of time and effort to our work, it has a serious impact on our
mind and body, and the majority of people in the world work, and jobs a lot. The
author suggests an example of a man who works in a slaughterhouse, and wonders
how terribly his psychic transforms after instant killings of living beings. He
also provides a statistics that 66% of slaughterhouse workers have serious
mental issues.[3] And
the slaughterhouse is only a grain in the sand: there are millions of jobs that
cause irreversible damage to our nature, obscure our minds, and escalate our
suffering. That is why the concept of Right Livelihood is so important, and
more and more Buddhists in the world quit their former jobs for that reason.
The
stage of Right Livelihood implies that it is wrong (or wrong livelihood) to
make for living under such conditions which eventually will destroy you on the
path to Enlightenment. The Buddha said: “And what, monks, is right livelihood?
There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones, having abandoned
dishonest livelihood and keeps his life going with right livelihood: This,
monks, is called right livelihood.[4]
One should ensure that his way of living is righteous: legal, peaceful, honest,
and has no harming consequences to yourself and other living beings.
The Buddha emphasized five kinds of activities
that are most harmful to engage in:
1) Activities, related to making and selling
gun, as well as other weapons of destruction.
2) Activities,
related to trading other living beings, such as slave trade or prostitution.
3) Activities,
related to production of meat, because it needs killing a living being.
4) Activities,
related to intoxicants, which influence the state of our consciousness, such as
drugs and alcohol.
5) Activities,
related to making or selling poisons, which are designed to kill; in times of
Gautama Buddha there even existed such a profession: a person you can come to
and buy poison for a murder.[5]
Sangharashita comments that even a slight
relation to those activities inevitably brings bad karma. For example, you may
have only one per cent of shares in a company that produces or keeps nuclear
weapon not being involved in it physically, and by that you are still
responsible for that; you are the one that helps to produce nuclear weapon, so from
Buddhist point of view, you are on the wrong path.[6]
Other bad occupations mentioned by the Buddha
are those that deal with trickery (e.g. conjurors), deceit (e.g. lots of news
reporters nowadays, politicians…), usury (e.g. pawnshop keepers), and
soothsaying (fortune tellers, astrologists).[7]
Even actors were disapproved by the Buddha, who answering to one actor’s
questions, said that actors not only fail to go to heaven, but actually, go to
hell because they most of all contribute to degradation of other people, and sharing
their vanity to the audiences.[8]
However, basically, any job that violates the principles of right action and
right speech, or has harmful consequences to anybody are considered wrong
livelihood by Buddhists.
After following through the concept of Right
Livelihood, we should try to apply it to the modern world, because society has
gone through major economic changes since fifth century B.C. Sangharashita
helps us with that by dividing this concept into three subsections: occupation,
vocation, and duration.[9]
Occupations, in their turn, can be divided
into four categories: First type of occupations is harmful ones, which we
discussed above – they cannot be righteous in any case. Second category is not negative
occupation, but it also influences people in a bad way, cultivates destructive
emotions, in them, such as greed, those are occupations of advertisers, and spammers
on the Internet and so on. Third category is those occupations that can be
transformed into a rightful path if we make some efforts, for example,
something usual as working in the office as a manager. The last category is
those occupations, which do not require a lot of mental pressure, those are the
simplest jobs; and Sangharashita recommends the good aspects for Buddhists so
that nothing took their energy from the level which is sufficient to meditate.[10]
For the vocation, Sangharashita defines it as
“a means of livelihood which is directly related to what one considers of
ultimate importance in one’s life.”[11]
It is just vocation when someone considers his or her job to be a pleasure-not labor.
This is rare and individual, but it is actually that perfect state we are
seeking for with the help of Buddhism.
Duration section is about how much time a
certain work takes from worker and is it worth it. Often greed for money and
things (like Apple products which became desire and obsession in our time)
obscures our minds, and we devote ourselves to constant money-making process,
which brings us only stress and material goods that are imposed on us from TV
screens, Internet and lots of our colleagues and friends who fell on the wave
of yielding ‘success’. When working, especially that one which does not really
add anything good into this world, is taking all the energy of the individual he
cannot become a Buddhist, because the path of the Bodhisattva requires a lot of
dedication.
Our global economy complicates the precautions
to do no harm to others. For example, you have a job in a processing workshop that
related to damaging to the environment, working in food
processing company from animals, working in a company of producing beer and wine,
working in a branch of being exploiting the labor of others, or working for a coporation
of product competing ... For to feed ourself and our family, we are no longer a
choice, so we have to continue. However, do not forget that we are still
responsible for what we did. If we remember that all beings are interconnected,
we can find another way to separate ourself from anything 'impure' is impossible
and bad karma really; thus, we do not hurt our love and compassion. Master Thich Nhat Hanh wrote: "To
practice Right Livelihood (samyag ajiva), you have to find a way to earn your
living without transgressing your ideals of love and compassion. The way you
support yourself can be an expression of your deepest self, or it can be a
source of suffering for you and others. " ... Our vocation can nourish our
understanding and compassion, or erode them. We should be awake to the
consequences, far and near, of the way we earn our living."[12]
Thus, for every lay Buddhist, refusing
to wrong livelihood, to what damage for all livings, and following to the motto
of the love and compassion, so the one is called to live in Right Livelihood. Earning
to nourish yourself and your family but is not cause suffering for other
beings, that is conscious life, and your life is meaningful for youself and others.
Highly developed, The Buddha also encourage the monks keeping to beg for food
as Shangha virture, and he also emphasizes to nourish the mind with abandon all
desires, mindfulness, practicing noble path to attain transcendent mind, as Mahācattārīsaka Sutta in Majjhima Nikaya following:
"And what is
right livelihood? Right Livelihood, I tell you, is of two sorts: There is right livelihood with
effluents, siding with merit, resulting in acquisitions; there is right
livelihood that is noble, without effluents, transcendent, a factor of the
path.
"And what is the right livelihood with effluents,
siding with merit, resulting in acquisitions? There is the case where a
disciple of the noble ones abandons wrong livelihood and maintains his life
with right livelihood. This is the right livelihood with effluents, siding with
merit, resulting in acquisitions.
"And what
is the right livelihood that is noble, without effluents, transcendent, a
factor of the path? The abstaining, desisting, abstinence, avoidance of wrong
livelihood in one developing the noble path whose mind is noble, whose mind is
without effluents, who is fully possessed of the noble path.”[13]
[1] Sangharakshita, The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, p.58-59
[2] Ibid…, p.61-62
[3] Ibid…, p.63
[4] SN 45.8, Magga-vibhanga Sutta: An Analysis of the Path
[5] AN5:177, Vanijja Sutta,
Business (Wrong Livelihood)
[6] Sangharakshita, The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, p.65
[7] MN 117, Maha-cattarisaka Sutta: The
Great Forty
[8] Sangharakshita, The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, p.65-66
[9] Ibid…
[10] Ibid…
[11] Ibid…
[12] The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, Parallax
Press, 1998, p. 104
[13] MN 117, Maha-cattarisaka Sutta:
The Great Forty
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